When does Shawnee Co. decides when to sound tornado sirens

TOPEKA (KSNT) - Shawnee County residents may be wondering why tornado sirens did not go off Tuesday despite a tornado touching down in the county's southeast corner.

KSNT 27 News spoke with Jake Henry, Planning Section Chief and Training/Exercise Coordinator for Shawnee County Emergency Management. He said since there were no sirens near the area that was affected by the EF1 tornado, they ultimately decided against sounding off the sirens.

"Those outdoor warning sirens would have been ineffective had we sounded them," Henry said, "because the folks who would have heard them were not impacted by the threat."

Henry said they monitor severe weather situations closely as they're occurring to watch for potential danger to county residents, and that the sirens are primarily to warn those outdoors to take shelter inside.

"We have to make that decision on a case-by-case basis based on where the storm is going, where it's going to impact, and those kinds of things," Henry said

He told 27 News it's important to avoid sounding the alarms unless there is legitimate danger in the area to avoid residents from getting desensitized and not taking them seriously.

During a tornado warning last month, sirens sounded all across the county for three minutes before the alarms were isolated to the area of impact. The county said that was an example of when they wanted to get more people's attention.

For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here.